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I got in on the 100,000 British Airways Visa payday like many of you and I’ve written many posts about using britishairways.com to check Oneworld award availability (like this one on partner awards). There’s even a rock-star 50% transfer bonus to BA with American Express Membership Rewards points until July 31, 2011, so I anticipate even more people trying to us britishairways.com. However, lately ba.com has been abominable lately - refusing to work and giving out frustrating errors....

The World of Hyatt loyalty program launched in early 2017 and it wasn’t viewed by everyone as a unanimous success. Elite perks at the highest tier did indeed get sweeter for those who could qualify, but things generally tightened up everywhere else. In 2018, Hyatt demonstrated that they had been listening to customer feedback and made some tweaks and adjustments to improve the World of Hyatt program. At the beginning of this year, they announced that award stays would count towards earning elite status, and that you would have a longer period of time to use the free night awards you earned in the program....

Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.Lufthansa Group posted record profits in 2017, the behemoth German-based aviation group reported on Thursday.The airline collective, which includes Lufthansa, Eurowings, Swiss, Brussels Airlines and Austrian Airlines, made profits totaling $2.92 billion last year, which was 33% higher than financial experts had predicted....

Around 7,700 Marriott International employees are on strike across eight US cities and will not return to work until an agreement is reached with the company.Thousands of the Marriott International employees on strike are members of Unite Here, an organization that represents workers throughout the US and Canada who work in the hotel, gaming, food service and airport industries. The employees have expiring contracts in 2018 and are demanding the company provide safer jobs and increase wages....

Newark Liberty International Airport, (EWR), one of the busiest international airports in the country, is currently renovating its oldest terminal, Terminal A, and turning it into a one-million-square-foot, state-of-the-art passenger terminal. The project, which is calling the updated terminal ‘Terminal One,’ broke ground in June 2017, and hopes to have a partial opening by 2021. Officials expect Terminal One to be fully operational by 2022.The new development will cost $2.7 billion, and officials hope that the new construction will reduce passenger congestion....

I never imagined how hard it would be to find the right way to pop the question — it takes a lot of preparation, imagination and creative thinking to come up with just the right words and the perfect setting. I had prepared myself for this moment two other times, and although those planned proposals would have been just as nice as this one, it just didn’t happen and I didn’t want to force it....

Following a ceremony Monday at Boeing’s Paine Field, Qantas Airways took delivery of its first 787-9 Dreamliner — one of eight such aircraft to be delivered by 2019. Originally ordered in August of 2015, these Dreamliners are set to replace the airline’s older 747s, and represent the first new aircraft type in the Qantas fleet since the A380 was added in 2008.With a range of over 8,900 miles, the 787-9 enables Qantas to expand its international network....

Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.It’s no secret that millennials love the rush of traveling solo. Now, it turns out most in the US also have their minds set on specific destinations, both domestically and internationally.According to a recent article by The Cashlorette, a new study conducted by the Princeton Survey Research Associates International shows that while 47% of adults say they would travel solo — 28% already have, while another 19% said they’d be interested in trying it — the idea is most appealing to millennials, with 58% saying they would do it in a heartbeat and 26% saying they already had....

Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.The Sydney Harbour Bridge itself is a popular bucket-list destination, whether you’d prefer to marvel at its greatness from the safety of the ground, from a ferry ride through the Harbour or you’re brave enough to climb the 439-foot structure....

Stop us if you’ve heard this story: On January 15, 2009, US Airways flight 1549 departed LaGuardia (LGA). Shortly after takeoff, its engines ran afoul of a flock of Canada geese, leaving the plane’s captain, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, and his crew about three minutes to safely land an engine-less plane. The cool-headed captain navigated the Airbus A320-214 onto the Hudson River in a now-famous water landing that will no doubt be the money sequence of “Sully,” the Tom Hanks-starring, Clint Eastwood-directed Flight 1549 movie that opens in theaters Friday, September 9....

American Airlines is in the midst of a massive premium economy retrofit project. The airline placed its first aircraft retrofit with premium economy into service at the end of June. Just over six months later, by the end of 2017, AA expects to have 63 widebody aircraft with premium economy.We’ve seen how the retrofit looks on the 777-200, but AA’s first Airbus A330-200 retrofits have just emerged — and the layout certainly caught our eye....

Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.Cathay Pacific’s first class is continuously ranked as a top-tier product, but unfortunately, the carrier doesn’t plan on offering it on many of its newer aircraft. That said, there are still plenty of options to experience it on long-haul flights....

Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.Following last month’s mid-air A321 explosion after a compromised departure from Sharm el-Sheikh airport in Egypt, the TSA is beefing up security measures in the US — specifically for employees with access to secure areas of the airport....

When I heard that United would be updating its onboard photo and video policy, I was certain the carrier would be making it more difficult for passengers to photograph flight attendants and other staff members — after all, a more restrictive policy could theoretically serve to reduce the number of incidents that end up escalating to become viral hits.As it turns out, that isn’t the case at all — United is actually relaxing its policy, giving passengers more flexibility when it comes to capturing experiences on board....

There’s been a fair amount of confusion surrounding American, Delta and especially United’s basic economy fares, in part due to how the airlines have opted to market this new “product.” Make no mistake — basic economy does not offer any savings over previous fares.Rather, as a result, passengers are now forced to pay as much as $50 more on a round-trip ticket to avoid basic economy — not $50 less than what flights used to cost....

I’ve gotten several emails from TPG readers about an AA promotion with up to 3,000 free miles for simply entering your email address and signing up for newsletters. I was a little busy this morning getting my Great Seatmate Contest underway, so I didn’t pay as much attention as I should have because free miles are my favorite kind of miles!I’ve been an AA member for years and thought for sure I’d be ineligible, but in fact the “appraiser” man told me I could get 1,000 miles for clicking two buttons and then I got another 500 for learning about AA vacations....

Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.TPG is planning to have a more significant presence at South by Southwest (SXSW) next year, and we need your help to get there!We’re pitching two panels: “Getting the Most Bang for your Touring Buck” for SXSW Music 2016 and “Why Your Startup Needs a Points Strategy” for SXSW Interactive 2016....

Update 11:43pm EST: The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has lifted the tsunami warning for most of the Caribbean — including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. However, Honduras and Belize are still threatened by 0.3 to 1 meter tsunami waves. The PTWC forecasts the following estimated time of arrival for these surges:LOCATION REGION COORDINATES ETA(UTC) ———————————————————— PUERTO CORTES HONDURAS 15.9N 88.0W 0342 01/10 BELIZE CITY BELIZE 17.5N 88.2W 0452 01/10Still recovering from the double-blow of Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico — with 40% of its residents still without power — and the US Virgin Islands are bracing for yet another natural disaster....

DevaluationA couple weeks ago I wrote about Air Canada Aeroplan’s plans to institute huge fuel surcharges on many of their Star Alliance partner awards. After a lot of negative customer feedback, they began to backpedal on those changes and I thought they may have scrapped those plans.However, that was just a temporary stay of execution, because they recently announced new charges coming as soon as November 30, 2011:“With the increasing cost of fuel, many airlines have started charging fuel surcharges on redemption tickets....

Disclaimer: Alaska wants its employees to be the first to see the new uniforms, so photos of the custom-made garments have yet to be released to the media. We will update this story with photos once we get them.Alaska Airlines debuted the latest change to its airline in its ongoing merger with Virgin America. Now that the two exist under a single operating certificate, Alaska unveiled new garb for 19,000 of its Alaska, Virgin America and Horizon Air uniformed employees....